Post by BuckSkin on Nov 1, 2021 19:37:21 GMT
Maize Weevil
The maize weevil attacks standing crops and stored grain alike, in particular, maize (what us uneducated call corn) before harvest, and is also commonly associated with rice.
It infests raw or processed cereals such as corn, wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, rye and buckwheat.
It can thrive in bagged pasta and cereal.
The complete development time of this species averages 36 days.
The female chews through the surface of the grain, creating a hole; she then deposits a small oval white egg, and covers the hole as the ovipositor is removed, with a waxy secretion that creates a plug.
The plug quickly hardens, and leaves a small raised area on the seed surface; this provides the only visible evidence that the kernel is infested.
Only one egg is laid inside each grain.
When the egg hatches into a white, legless grub, it will remain inside and begin feeding on the grain; the larvae will pupate while inside, then chew a circular exit hole, and emerge as an adult beetle.
A single female will lay 300 to 400 eggs during her lifetime.
Adults can live for 5 to 8 months.
Unknowingly, you have eaten and digested tens of thousands of these white legless grubs and been none the wiser.
The same goes for peanuts and any candy containing peanuts.
To prove this, put a bag of candy-coated peanuts in an insect-proof container and leave it in a warm place for a few months; when you open the bag, every last coated peanut will have a big hole in it and there will be exactly as many wiggling larva in the bag as there are peanuts.
Way back in my bicycle riding days, my cousin and myself rode our bicycles to the Piggly Wiggly and purchased two big bags of noodles.
Once back home, we put a pot to boiling and dumped the contents of one bag in the pot.
Immediately, tens of thousands of mature Maize Weevil came to the surface.
We then took a look at the unopened bag and there were more weevils by volume than there were noodles.
Much to the consternation of the store manager and many of his former customers, we promptly took kettle and unopened bag in hand and bicycled our way back to the Piggly Wiggly and demanded a full refund of our hard-earned cash.
Thursday_28-October-2021
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize_weevil
The maize weevil attacks standing crops and stored grain alike, in particular, maize (what us uneducated call corn) before harvest, and is also commonly associated with rice.
It infests raw or processed cereals such as corn, wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, rye and buckwheat.
It can thrive in bagged pasta and cereal.
The complete development time of this species averages 36 days.
The female chews through the surface of the grain, creating a hole; she then deposits a small oval white egg, and covers the hole as the ovipositor is removed, with a waxy secretion that creates a plug.
The plug quickly hardens, and leaves a small raised area on the seed surface; this provides the only visible evidence that the kernel is infested.
Only one egg is laid inside each grain.
When the egg hatches into a white, legless grub, it will remain inside and begin feeding on the grain; the larvae will pupate while inside, then chew a circular exit hole, and emerge as an adult beetle.
A single female will lay 300 to 400 eggs during her lifetime.
Adults can live for 5 to 8 months.
Unknowingly, you have eaten and digested tens of thousands of these white legless grubs and been none the wiser.
The same goes for peanuts and any candy containing peanuts.
To prove this, put a bag of candy-coated peanuts in an insect-proof container and leave it in a warm place for a few months; when you open the bag, every last coated peanut will have a big hole in it and there will be exactly as many wiggling larva in the bag as there are peanuts.
Way back in my bicycle riding days, my cousin and myself rode our bicycles to the Piggly Wiggly and purchased two big bags of noodles.
Once back home, we put a pot to boiling and dumped the contents of one bag in the pot.
Immediately, tens of thousands of mature Maize Weevil came to the surface.
We then took a look at the unopened bag and there were more weevils by volume than there were noodles.
Much to the consternation of the store manager and many of his former customers, we promptly took kettle and unopened bag in hand and bicycled our way back to the Piggly Wiggly and demanded a full refund of our hard-earned cash.
Thursday_28-October-2021
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize_weevil
